December 3rd, 2023 marked a sad day for Houston, as the popular EaDo venue closed it doors after 17 years of being in operation.
Warehouse Live is no more – after its launch in 2006, the venue chapter comes to a close. Warehouse Live has been home to a lot of rising artists who are now well-known staples in the music industry such as Adele, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Chance the Rapper, SZA, John Legend and Deftones. The venue was always a vibe walking through the eclectic Emmanuel street, it definitely gave Houston vibes and was a great setting for rising artists. Warehouse Live will no longer cease to exist in East Downtown, the well-known music spot will be relocating to Rise Rooftop’s previous location in Midtown, rebranding themselves as ‘Warehouse Live Midtown.’ The final day was December 3rd at the original location, and featured performances from local artists across its three rooms (the Ballroom, the Studio and the Green Room).
December 3rd marked the Grand Finale of Warehouse Live, hosted by Backstage Bryan, a security guard at the venue who’s been working for about 16 years. Each room was filled with melancholic celebrations, everyone commemorating the venue and its accomplishments.The Ballroom featured a variety of acts – from Skabz the Clown who allowed fans to staple tips to his body parts, Burlesque dancer Piper Daily, and musical acts like English-Nigerian singer Myoa and Houston rock favorites Rozy. The studio featured a variety of Metal bands (such as Skeptic Nation, The Genzalez, and Suffering in Silence), as the room often hosted rock + metal events.
The Green Room, on the other hand, was a whole ballpark of its own – while the room hosted acts like Deniz Love, Raging Mammoth and Justice May, the headliner was the absolute cherry on top. Waterparks, a popular pop-rock band from Houston, discovered that the venue was closing down and immediately announced a secret show in the Green Room, the venue’s smallest room with a 140-person capacity. In order to attend the event, you had to email the band your name and ticket receipt for their Houston show of the ‘Sneaking Out of Heaven’ tour happening in March 2023. While only singer Awsten Knight and guitarist Geoff Wigington were in attendance due to the last-minute nature of the show, Waterparks performed an acoustic set for the final date at the venue, as the band performed their first ever Headlining show in the Green Room at Warehouse in 2011/2012. Fans were crowded in the room in anticipation of the set, and the duo performed a multitude of songs, including the live debut of “Territory” from their Cluster EP and songs they hadn’t performed since 2017.
“This is the first show in YEARS that we aren’t contractually obligated to do because we love this venue so much and we love you Houston” screams Knight before performing more tracks from their first two albums. While the set was entirely acoustic, the vibes in the room felt as if it was a normal Waterparks show. Every single fan sang along every word, even to the songs not featured on the current tour cycle rotation. The duo also proceeded to play a cover of Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” ending their set with “I’m a Natural Blue” and “Lucky People.”
Warehouse Live will forever live on and remain a historic part of the Houston music scene. We are highly-anticipating the revival at Warehouse Live Midtown, which is scheduled to open on December 29th with a performance by Sullivan King. The official grand opening will kick-off on New Year’s Eve with a performance by Cash Cash.
Keylee is a full-time music journalist/photographer from Houston, Texas. She has received a B.S in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as an M.A in Mass Communications from the University of Houston. As an avid concert-goer and movie fanatic, she aspires to create her own path as a content creator by bonding with others over the power of local music and media. If she isn’t listening to her favorite band Paramore, you’ll catch her hanging out with her brothers or playing with her husky Luna.
